


Oct 11: Zombie Plan

by MadhouseVagabond



Series: Scarefest Challenges 2017 [11]
Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter/Funhaus RPF
Genre: Angst, Death, FYRTFF Scarefest Challenge 2017, Gen, M/M, Pain, Plan, Scarefest Challenge 2017, Survival, Zombies, jeremwood, zombie plan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-12
Updated: 2017-10-12
Packaged: 2019-01-16 06:46:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12337593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MadhouseVagabond/pseuds/MadhouseVagabond
Summary: Having a plan helps when disaster strikes. For Ryan Haywood, the plan never seems to work.





	Oct 11: Zombie Plan

The campfire crackled and snapped, the only noise in the silence of the cool night air. The darkness around in normal times would've been inviting, a chance to gaze up at the stars, to enjoy the peace and quiet that came with night.

But these weren't normal times.

Ryan Haywood looked over at the sleeping form of the man beside him, smiling sadly at how peaceful he looked. The two had been running for so long, keeping to the shadows and keeping each other alive with every ounce of their beings. Jeremy Dooley made a small cry in his sleep but then stilled and his peaceful slumber continued. Ryan smiled.

"He's even cuter when he's asleep," he said softly. On Ryan's other side another young man with messy curly red hair glanced over.

"He'd look better if he'd take a fucking shower," he murdered with a slight smile. Ryan looked over at the kid.

"I mean, as unrealistic as that would be," he said and gestured out to the darkness. "He's still not hard on the eyes Michael."

"Then fucking ask him out already Ryan! Geez you've been dancing around this for like what, almost three months?" Michael Jones said. Ryan blushed and looked down with a sad expression.

"I can't. It's not part of the plan," he said softly.

"To hell with your dumbass plan! If you feel this strongly about him you need to tell him, especially now with everything that's going on. You don't want to waste whatever time you guys have together," Michael said. Ryan looked at the young man and smiled.

"When did you get so smart kid?" he asked. Michael chuckled and leaned against his rifle looking out into the darkness.

"I've always been this wise Ryan," he said and the two laughed quietly. Ryan looked again at Jeremy and wondered if he could tell him. Michael was right he did need to say something before...he didn't want to think about that.

Standing, Ryan shouldered his own rifle and looked out into the night. He walked the parameter of the camp, avoiding stepping on the other sleeping people. He sighed as thoughts of Jeremy filled his mind. How could he tell him? He'd be breaking one of his many rules for survival he'd set in place. The rules were simple really; don't stop moving, always keep your weapon nearby and cleaned and loaded, travel in groups of two or more, don't get too close to anyone, stay calm and level-headed, and never fully trust other people.

He'd already broken a few of these rules, making the excuse that it was beneficial to his survival. But was survival worth it if he was miserable? He'd been alone for so long, finally stumbling upon Jeremy and then the rest of the group, Ryan feeling more alive than ever before. He laughed more, he would smile again, and he felt happy.

This wasn't the plan at all. The plan had kept him alive this long, he needed to stick to the plan.

His thoughts were interrupted by groaning and he froze, his heart stopping in his chest. The groans grew closer, louder, more guttural. Taking a risk Ryan crouched to the ground and raised his pistol, activating the flashlight he'd attached to it. His blood ran cold at the sight that met his eyes. In front of him a small herd of zoms were walking, and at the sight of his light several turned to him. Quickly turning off his light Ryan stood and ran back to the camp, quickly telling Michael who busied himself with putting out the fire and loading supplies. Ryan went around waking each person up, telling them to remain quiet as each one nodded and quickly packed up. They'd all been through this routine a few times before and had the system mostly down.

Ryan ran over to Jeremy and shook him awake, the lad's eyes flying open and he sat up quickly, grabbing Ryan by the front of the shirt, a knife pressed against his throat. After a second Jeremy relaxed when he saw it was only Ryan and smiled.

"How was I that time?" he asked letting Ryan go and sheathing his knife. Ryan smiled.

"Much better! I think you've got it down. But we need to move Jer," Ryan said urgently.

"Zoms?" Jeremy asked. Ryan nodded and without another word Jeremy grabbed his already packed bag, rolled up his sleeping bag, and shouldered his few guns and picked up his machete. It took him less than a minute. Ryan was beaming with pride, Jeremy picking up on the survival techniques quicker than any of the others, the lad being around Ryan the longest.

Silently the two darted after the group as they made their way to the trucks that they parked a few yards away, not too far away to make a dash for, but far enough that any alarms or lights wouldn't draw the zoms to the group's camp. As Ryan helped Jeremy hop into the bed of a truck he noticed that several of the zoms had broken off and were now running their way.

"Shit they've spotted us!" he shouted to the head driver who nodded. Ryan dove into the bed of the truck and hit the roof a few times to let Michael know they were ready, Jeremy already taking a knee and aiming at the oncoming hoard.

The trucks drove off, the passengers and riders taking potshots at the zombies while allowing the drivers to focus on the road. Ryan and Jeremy sat in the small chairs that they'd welded to the bed of the truck, an idea Ryan had had awhile back, their rifles resting steadily in the mounts that they'd welded onto the sides of the trucks, this being Jeremy's idea. There were four chairs per bed and four mounts, enough room for shooters on both sides plus still enough space in the bed to store supplies.

"Take that you whores!" Jeremy shouted as he fired three shots, three of the pursuing zoms' heads exploding.

"Awesome shot Lil' J!" Ryan cheered and blushed when Jeremy smiled over at him.

"Learned from the best!" he said causing Ryan to blush more. There was a commotion from up ahead and Ryan had just enough time to look up and see the lead truck spin out of control and then flip, hitting the ground and flying into the air before landing in the road.

"Michael!" Ryan yelled. The lad veered off the road before the truck in front of them hit the flipped one, spinning out as well and then flipping onto its side.

"This isn't good! We gotta get out of here!" Jeremy said as he looked behind them to see the hoard swarm around the two trucks, many more following the remaining three. As he spoke Ryan looked in front of them and saw a crowd of slow moving zoms. Michael hadn't seen them yet.

"Jeremy! Grab your stuff now!" he roared as he unbuckled his seatbelt and reached over undoing Jeremy's. The lad didn't hesitate but grabbed his pack and weapons. Just as they were about to jump the truck hit something and sailed into the air, throwing them out into open space. Ryan watched terrified as Jeremy disappeared from his view into the dark. He hit the ground hard on his back but knew he'd be okay. He crawled forward desperately calling out for Jeremy, finally finding the lad lying on the ground groaning in pain but seemingly unhurt. He reached out and grabbed Jeremy's hand and looked at him with concern but the lad simply smiled and held up a thumb to show he was okay.

Michael leapt out of the drivers seat a moment before the truck went sailing into the zoms, hitting the ground hard and rolling quickly to the side to avoid getting hit by the other trucks who hadn't noticed yet. He painfully struggled to his feet and limped over to where he'd seen Ryan and Jeremy land.

Ryan stood quickly and pulled Jeremy after him, running now away from the zoms, Michael and a few others joining them as they fled. The trucks were no good to them, Ryan having heavy suspicions that they'd been tampered with when they'd encountered that hostile group of survivors a few miles back. The few survivors ran up a hill and found several empty houses which they quickly ducked into, closing the doors behind them. Ryan and Jeremy ran to the roof and took point, keeping an eye out for anyone approaching the houses, Michael and the others checking to see if anyone was hurt or bit and tending to any wounds.

"Are you sure you're okay? It could just be the adrenaline," Ryan asked worriedly as he glanced over at Jeremy who shifted uncomfortably.

"I'm okay Rye Bread, really. I just landed hard on my back, nothing's broken or anything I'll be okay," Jeremy reassured him, finding it sweet that Ryan was concerned about him.

"This wasn't how the plan was supposed to go," he heard Ryan mutter. He looked over at the older man and saw him frowning and biting his lip like he did when he felt guilty about something. Making a decision to do something stupid Jeremy leaned over and poked Ryan in the side, getting the man's attention.

"Hey, it's not your fault. Accidents happen and some things are just out of our control," he said. Ryan's face softened and he smiled slightly.

"I know. It's just the plan has worked so well so far and now everything is falling apart," he said.

"Ryan, plans are nice and good to have and all, but don't beat yourself up if things don't always happen the way you think they should. You can't plan for everything," Jeremy said and put a hand on the older man's shoulder, squeezing slightly. Ryan looked at the hand and blushed as he looked up at Jeremy who seemed to realize what he was doing and removed his hand quickly, also blushing.

"We've got zoms coming in!" they heard Michael call from the first floor. The two instantly returned to their positions and began taking out zoms with their sniper rifles. When both had run out of ammo they switched to ARs and waited for the zoms to get closer before taking out a large number of them.

"Oh fuck me in the ass I'm out!" Jeremy exclaimed when his gun clicked. Ryan grew red as he thought about how bad he wanted to and shook his head trying to concentrate.

"I saw a bow and some arrows on the second floor you could grab until we need to go close quarters," Ryan said. Jeremy nodded and dashed down the stairs to fetch the bow. It was then that Ryan heard the screams and gunfire from the ground floor.

"They've made it inside!" Michael screamed as he fired several shots. Ryan grew pale and without thinking turned and dashed down the stairs after Jeremy, praying he wasn't too late to save him.

He reached the second floor just in time to see the lad shoot an arrow into the head of a zom that stood over him about to deliver a killing bite. With a shout Ryan ran to him and helped him up, shoving him behind him and covering him from the flood of zoms that were rushing up the stairs. Pushing Jeremy towards the stairs leading to the roof Ryan shot several zoms before turning and slamming the door closed, rushing after Jeremy who'd run to the edge of the roof and waited for the gent to follow. They were of one mind as Ryan ran up, taking each other's hand and then leaping off the roof, landing on a haystack near the side of the house and dashing off into the night, both men growing sick when the screams and shooting from the lower level of the house went silent, the groans of the zoms the only sound filling the night air.

They found shelter in an abandoned storage shed several miles away and sat down exhausted, their adrenaline wearing off. Jeremy groaned.

"Let's never do that again," he said. Ryan snorted and nodded.

"Agreed," he said. The two sat there for a minute before Ryan noticed Jeremy was breathing hard beside him and looked over. In the light that came in through the window he saw that the lad was looking at his left arm, facing away from Ryan.

"Jeremy what's wrong?" he asked. Jeremy looked over at Ryan, tears in his eyes and then turned his body. Ryan grew pale at the sight and felt his heart leap into his throat. There on Jeremy's arm was a definitive bite mark.

"No," Ryan breathed. He looked up at Jeremy who was trying to hold the tears back and stay brace but he was struggling.

"Rye Bread..." he said and then the tears fell, streaming down his cheeks. Ryan's own eyes flooded with tears and the two embraced, sobbing into each other's shoulders.

"I'm sorry, I should've gotten to you sooner!" Ryan cried.

"It wasn't your fault Ry, I was stupid and made a mistake," Jeremy said firmly pulling away from Ryan and looking into his eyes. The look he gave Ryan broke his heart, it was the look that someone would give someone if they were trying to memorize their face before they left.

"There could still be a cure! We haven't tried everything! We can fix this, I can save you!" Ryan cried. Jeremy sobbed as he smiled slightly.

"You can't save everyone Ryan," he said sadly. Ryan shook his head.

"Don't say that! I need to save you! You can't die, I won't let you!" he cried, closing his eyes and looking down. He felt Jeremy gently take his chin and raise his head, till both men were looking into each other's eyes.

"You saved me a long time ago Rye Bread," Jeremy said. Ryan smiled sadly and reached out a hand, cupping Jeremy's bearded cheek and wiping a tear away with his thumb.

"I never got the chance to tell you," he said quietly.

"Tell me what?" Jeremy asked.

"How much I love you," Ryan said again. Jeremy's eyes widened and filled with surprise and then joy.

"Y-you love me?" he asked. Instead of answering Ryan leaned in and kissed Jeremy on the lips, a soft gentle kiss that conveyed all the emotion he felt. Jeremy leaned into the kiss, returning it, the kiss everything he ever imagined it would be if Ryan kissed him. The two parted, fresh tears in their eyes.

"That's one part of the plan I'm happy to have broken," Ryan said with a soft smile. Jeremy laughed and Ryan realized how much he was going to miss that laugh.

"Hey Rye Bread?" Jeremy asked.

"Yes Jer Bear?" Ryan answered smiling at the younger man who blushed at the nickname.

"Promise me something?" he asked.

"Anything for you my stars!" Ryan nodded. Jeremy took a deep breath and sighed.

"Don't let me turn," he said, lip quivering. Ryan frowned.

"Jeremy please don't ask me to kill you!" he begged. Jeremy looked up at Ryan, fear there.

"I don't want to come back as one. Please Ry, don't let me turn! Promise me you won't let me!" he urged. Ryan put and hand on the back of Jeremy's neck and pulled the lad closer, leaning their foreheads together. They stayed that way for a moment before Ryan looked up into Jeremy's eyes.

"Okay. I promise," he choked out. Jeremy smiled and cupped Ryan's face in his hands.

"You'll survive this! That's what you do. You've got to live for the both of us Ryan! Don't ever give up, and don't shut down when I'm gone. Please take care of yourself and find a way to live. Take time to mourn, but don't kill yourself over it," Jeremy told him. Ryan searched the lad's eyes and nodded.

"You know me too well," he said.

"That's what happens when I spend so much time with your crazy ass," Jeremy chuckled and winked, Ryan giggling. The two separated and lay back against the wall of the shed, enjoying the silence and each other's company.

When Jeremy began to cough Ryan felt his heart tear in two. He gave the lad a concerned look but Jeremy shook his head. The gent pulled Jeremy into another kiss and then pulled him onto his lap, rocking him as he slowly and painfully pulled out his knife, the one Jeremy had given him as a birthday present. The two looked at each other knowing that neither wanted to do what needed to be done.

"Remember your promises Ryan," Jeremy said as he leaned against the gent's chest, a few tears falling down his face.

"I won't Jer, I'll keep them," Ryan said. Jeremy smiled and then, with tears flowing down his cheeks, Ryan slid his knife into Jeremy's heart, killing him instantly. When the lad's breathing stopped and he grew limp in Ryan's arms is when Ryan finally broke. He threw the knife away and let out an animalistic wail of pain, hugging the lad close and rocking them both, stroking Jeremy's face gently. After an hour he'd cried himself out, and he sat there, holding Jeremy and wishing everything could change.

He buried the lad nearby, giving him a proper burial like he deserved, carving a small cross out of some sticks and planting it at the head of the grave, saying one last goodbye to his friend, the only person he'd ever truly loved. Turning Ryan slowly walked away, crying softly to himself as he realized that he was once again, alone. He touched the necklace that hung around his neck, the cross that Jeremy always wore that he'd taken off the lad's body to keep as a memory of his promises he'd made.

This wasn't part of the plan.


End file.
